Man who caused 12-hour standoff on East Evergreen identified

Malcolm Eric Johnson, 50, was charged with aggravated kidnapping and aggravated assault of a public servant Thursday after precipitating a 12-hour standoff.

Photo By John Davenport / San Antonio Express-News

SWAT team members were involved in the standoff that shut down streets Thursday near Evergreen and McCullough.

Malcolm Eric Johnson, 50, faces kidnapping and assault against a public servant charges.

The man who held an 18-year-old hostage in a 12-hour standoff Thursday has been identified.

Police arrested Malcolm Eric Johnson, 50, at 3:30 p.m. Thursday after he held the younger man hostage in an apartment in the 200 block of East Evergreen, north of downtown. Initially, his age was reported as 53, but Johnson is 50.

Johnson faces charges of aggravated kidnapping and aggravated assault against a public servant. He still was being held Friday morning in the Bexar County Jail on $300,000 bail.

Johnson was arrested on a murder charge more than a decade ago. The charge was dropped after a co-defendant, Howard Brown, agreed to testify against him but then wrote letters to Johnson claiming he would not keep his promise to police.

Brown told police that in 2001 Johnson broke into a home in the 500 block of Quitman Street, where he shot a man twice in the head as he watched television.

Johnson was in the East Evergreen apartment Thursday as a guest of the 18-year-old man, who police said was a friend. Johnson became abusive and started using drugs while he was there, police said. The younger man and his roommate asked Johnson to leave, but Johnson refused.

The man's roommate was able to leave the apartment and called police. Police arrived about 4 a.m. Thursday and said Johnson threatened to shoot anyone who made him go, and he would not allow the 18-year-old to leave.

A SWAT team surrounded the apartment and hostage negotiators succeeded in getting the 18-year-old out after several hours. Upon Johnson's request, police said they brought his mother to the house.

Early in the afternoon, Johnson asked officers for a phone and brandished a rifle at the officer who went to deliver it, prompting the officer to fire at least four shots from down a hallway, police said. Johnson was not hit.